Research Guides: ITEC 4300: Quality Assurance: Case Studies in Magazines and Journals

Why Can't I Just Google?

WHY CAN'T I JUST GOOGLE?

Using search engines such as Google plays an increasingly valuable role in the research process, and can alert you to material you would not otherwise come across. When you use freely-available websites, though, you have to be responsible for judging the authoritativeness and quality of what you are seeing, and you will (for the most part) only see what can be offered for free. Libraries have shared buying power and can make available full-text of articles that come through reputable publications that have some kind of editorial review process in place.

Google Scholar

If you do want to Google for your case study try this:

Article Databases

Databases covering journals in quality assurance include:

ABI/INFORM This link opens in a new window
In-depth coverage of business and management publications. Includes journals, dissertations, working papers, key business newspapers, trade publications, country-and industry-focused reports and data. Topics covered include business conditions, trends, corporate strategies and tactics, management techniques, competitive and product information.
Emerald This link opens in a new window
Provides limited access to full text journals, books and case studies. Topics include: engineering, general management, human resources; information management, library and information services, marketing, operations and production management, public sector management, quality management, and training and education. Emerald is published by the U.K.-based MCB University Press. Full-text content spans 1994 – Present.
Applied Science & Technology Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing, abstracts, and articles for core journals on technology and applied sciences. Topics include: biomedical engineering, engineering, and construction management among others. Includes full text for some titles. Content spans 1983 – Present.
IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
Provides access to scientific and technical content published by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) and its publishing partners. Comprised of over four million full-text documents, it includes journals, conference reports, technical standards, and books. Covers electrical engineering, computer science, and electronics.

Search Tips

SEARCH TIPS

Boolean Operators -- use the Boolean Operator “AND” to narrow your search:

Example: quality assurance AND hospitals

Instead of looking through all of the articles on quality assurance, you can limit your results to only those articles which deal with quality assurance as it relates to hospitals.

Truncation (wild cards)

This varies a bit from database to database. Most often an asterisk * is used but occasionally a question mark (?) is used. Consult the onscreen searching tips for the specific database you are using.

Ex . Case stud* allows you to retrieve “case study” as well as “case studies”

Find a specific journal

Find Full-Text Articles --When you have a citation to a specific journal and you need to get the full text of an article from it
Find E-journal Titles-- When you want to just browse an online journal